Priest petrified (From Borehamwood Times)

Priest petrified

4:24pm Tuesday 13th April 2004 in News By MARTYN KENT

A priest at a Borehamwood church cannot live in his own parish for fear of becoming a target of teenage yobs.

Father Matthew Heslin is so worried about his safety that he prefers to commute to take mass, rather than move into the house attached to Saints John Fisher and Thomas More Church in Rossington Avenue.

Youths defecate and spit at the church doors, intimidate parishioners and regularly vandalise property there under the gaze of a CCTV camera.

Last week the priest, who took up the position a year ago, feared he was going to be attacked when youths stopped him giving a dying parishioner his last rites by blocking him in the car park.

"This is wrong I have pensioners afraid to come to church. Are we going to live our lives in fear of these lawless thugs?," he said.

"How can one live where you do not know what's going to happen from one day to the next? It's a plague on our society and way of life a home-grown terrorism."

Father Heslin's predecessor endured similar incidents including youths urinating through his letterbox and left Borehamwood last year.

The priest uses the presbytery, which has also been broken into and vandalised, but has explained to hundreds of churchgoers that he cannot live there, as they might expect.

"It's very sad. The parishioners are saying, We want our priest,' but I'm nervous about becoming a prisoner in the home after dark," he said.

Tom O'Connor, a parishioner for 16 years, said the trouble has been going on for a year. "It's unbelievable he is a lovely man. We just haven't got enough police and they can't control the children".

Yobs tried to destroy new iron gates when they were erected last month to protect the Roman Catholic church. Next week security floodlights are being installed and police are looking at CCTV footage of offenders.

Borough councillor Martin Heywood said: "It's absolutely out of control when a parish priest cannot move in. It looks like these kids have driven the old priest out and now stopped the new one taking up residence."

Chief Inspector Dave Moore, of Hertfordshire police, said: "We are well aware of youths causing problems at the church and there have been various meetings between ourselves, the council and the church to address these problems."

He said regular patrols were being carried out around the church.